GHC Inmaculada 2017 Tour

Well done to your player for having been selected for this year's tour to one of Europe's top youth tournaments.

Tournament Background

This December will be the seventh time GHC participate in this annual youth hockey tournament hosted by the Club de Polo de Barcelona. Officially known as the Torneo Internacional de la Inmaculada "Marga Monegal," this is the tournament’s 31st year and has over the years attracted the top clubs in Spain and many from across Europe.

In the past we have seen teams from The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Ireland to name a few. About eighty teams will be participating across four age groups of boys and girls and the Polo Club are hoping to welcome nearly 1000 players this year. Click here for the Club de Polo de Barcelona Tournament Inmaculada website.

The Polo Club has produced 49 Spanish Olympic players and their top Ladies' and Men’s teams compete in Spain’s premier league. In the past they have hosted the Hockey World Championships and the Olympic Qualifiers. The Polo Club also host one of Europe’s well known top club tournaments every year in January, the 'Kings Hockey' or Hockey Reyes.

The Inmaculada is the youth version of the Reyes tournament, which has been running for 68 years. The Inmaculada is named for the public holiday (6 December) which gives the Friday off for the whole of Spain as well as for Marga Monegal, a past leader of Polo Juniors.

GHC Participation

This year GHC are participating with 6 teams – 3 boys teams and 3 girls teams. The tournament starts at 9am on Friday 8 December and finishes at 5pm on Sunday 10 December. Our first matches will not be before 11.30am on Friday.

GHC's objectives for the tour are to challenge our top teams and players at this half-way point of the season, get teams ready for important end of season tournaments, and give the players the experience of being on international tour with their team. Our main tour arrangements are for the teams to travel together on Friday morning 8 December, returning Sunday 10 December.

Each team travels with a GHC coach and three GHC Officers (DBS checked helpers). Overall we are 67 players and 24 official helpers. Other parents are very welcome to come along.

Tour Details and Forms

Please note we are still negotiating with the hotel who have increased their prices significantly from previous years. Please do not book the hotel as this will make the hotel think that demand is going up and may make it more expensive for all. We hope to have this solved soon and will let you know details for booking extra flights and hotel asap.

Depending on the hotel, we are trying to keep the overall cost as close to last year as possible (£415). It may have to be more but we are doing our best to keep costs down. Price includes flights, hotel, meals, transfers to/from hotel, tournament fee, insurance.

Please complete the form for your player and make a £250 deposit to GHC and a payment of £200 if you are a team helper on the pre-paid flight (see list below for Form 2):

GUILDFORD HOCKEY CLUB

40-22-26

7265 1637

Full information about the tour and how the weekend works including packing list is here. Please download, read and keep for reference:

We will likely only know the match schedule a week before the tournament.

Form 1: Players

Parents, you need to complete this online form and give consent for your Player. Please have your child's passport and EHIC to hand. And please, please, please be careful when inputting details and in particular use the requested format for dates.

Form 3: Accompanying Parents and DBS Helpers on self-purchased Flights

If you are not part of our coaches/parents/helpers but are planning on coming along on the tour, please add yourselves to our database. This will help with communications and meal and transfer arrangements.

Please note that the hotel will be booked and paid for the players and is included in the tour payment; all adults (helpers or accompanying) will need to book and pay their own hotel. We are working on getting a good rate for all.

Helpers, for obvious reasons, need to stay in the same hotel as the players.

Accompanying parents will need to book their own flights and hotel. They can choose to stay at the tour hotel or a less expensive option very nearby.

The Tour flights are:

BA 0472 0615 LHR - BCN Friday 8 December

BA 0487 2030 BCN - LHR Sunday 10 December

Contact Melinda with any questions (and thanks for your patience while we work out the details).